The memory controller is on the chipset.
Do you have the latest BIOS installed for that motherboard.

missunderstooDOS wrote on 2023-03-25, 04:51:

Hello guys, new user, I tried looking at the forums but couldn't find a solution to my issues. If there is a thread that answers my question, go ahead and link it. I have an HP Vectra VL6, pretty sure it is a Series 8 since it has the 5899-69001 motherboard. I got a Pentium III 600, 6x multiplier, 100MHz FSB. I am using that to replace the Pentium II 266 MHz. The Pentium II could recognize 383 MB of non-ECCRAM with mixed sticks. The Pentium III doesn't boot up with the KTH5361/128. It recognizes both sticks of KTH6501/128, one with 16 chips, the other with 8, but incorrectly counts them with amounts like 4, 8, 31, 62, 74, and 80 MB. This applies even when I try each stick individually, thus how I found out about the bootup issue with the 5361. So I know the board supports sticks with 16 MB chips and the board recognizes it as a Pentium III 500 MHz (multiplier limit maybe?). Is my Pentium III borked with a wonky memory controller? Is the Pentium III picky about which RAM it uses? I would love to know.

Welcome to Vogons 😀

As @cyclone3d suggests, might be worth checking you're on a later BIOS for the board (with greater memory & proper PIII support) - try this one linked here https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php … riverid=1372912

This link lists some of the changes made in the various BIOS versions - https://contents.driverguide.com/content.php? … th=WHATSNEW.TXT

I'm sorry, I knew I forgot something. The BIOS I have is HN.02.04US, the latest BIOS I can seem to find.

Well, you went from a 66 mhz fsb cpu to a 100 mhz fsb cpu. Regarding the ram issue, the memory controller it's in chipset. Check if you have selected in the bios ram speed as fsb+33mhz, your ram is 100 mhz rated so with your PII will make sense (66+33), but when you install the PIII you will get 133 (100+33) so maybe the ram or the memory controller can't handle 133Mhz.

I cannot find any memory settings for the memory speed. I did change out the RAM for 32 MB sticks of 100MHz but after it counts the RAM, the system freezes up. The board is supposed to detect when a processor has an FSB speed of 66 and 100 MHz according to the HP manual, thus why a 333 MHz and 500 MHz CPU have the same switch settings. The only thing I can think of is the last BIOS update for the motherboard supported up to the 500 MHz variant and anything after that is a no go. I even tried enabling the serial number identification